Case Renews Wrongful Conviction Debate

(CBS)  Henry Skinner was an hour from death last week when the Supreme Court stayed his execution. At issue: could DNA testing prove his innocence? Three remain without laws allowing post-conviction DNA testing, and some advocates are touting the this turn of events as a victory that may bring about legislative change, as CBS News correspondent Manuel Gallegus reports.

Dennis Maher spent 19 years in a Massachusetts prison for a series of rapes he did not commit. But he's not angry.

"If I am angry then I am going to be bitter and dwell on what I lost," he said.

Maher was falsely identified by an eye-witness and was sentenced to 20 years to life in 1984. He was 26.

After his conviction, he tried for years to have the DNA evidence in his case tested. But, for convicted felons in Massachusetts, that decision rests with the judges and prosecutors - the same people who sent the convicts to prison.

"The judge thought I was guilty so he didn't have to allow DNA testing," Maher said.

Massachusetts, Alaska and Oklahoma are the only states that don't have a standardized law granting convicted felons a right to test DNA evidence in their cases.

Advocates for DNA testing have tried at least three times to push the issue through the state legislature, but it's always failed. Critics found it too vague and prosecutors fought back.

As Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz put it, "At what point do we say no?"

Cruz insists DNA requests should still be handled case by case and says that any new law would overload the system.

"We'd have individuals who will just say, 'I want this, I want to test,' this and it really would open up the flood gates," Cruz said.

Even without the law, nine prisoners in Massachusetts have been exonerated though DNA. But they spent a combined 117 years locked up for crimes they didn't commit.

Former prosecutor David Meier leads a Boston bar association task force now urging Massachusetts to change its law.

"These cases strike at the heart of criminal justice system," Meier said and "the bill recommended by the task force would create uniformity and consistency."

Dennis Maher was released in 2003 and since then has been outspoken about the system that locked him up.

"The others who are still in prison - they are just looking for a chance, a chance to prove they didn't do what happened to them," Maher said - a chance to begin a new life.

[kansas1946]

It should be a federal law that any person convicted of a crime should have access to DNA testing if it is available. To almost let a man be executed that is innocent because you don't want to test the DNA is inexcusable and unAmerican. Any prosecutor or judge that fought against the testing should lose their job.

[tmittelstaed]

We all know what this is about, it's about judges and prosecutors not wanting to look bad because they sent an innocent person to jail.